THOMAS NIGRA

1941 - 2022

NIGRA Thomas Peter Nigra August 6, 1941 - March 21, 2022 Dr. Thomas P. Nigra, who has died at the age of 80, was a renowned dermatologist. The cause of death was heart failure. The creator and, for 43 years, Chairman of the Department of Dermatology at the Washington Hospital Center, he conducted pioneering clinical research on minoxidil as a treatment for hair loss and on the use of phototherapy for the treatment of a variety of skin disorders, including psoriasis. A winner of that institution's Gold-Headed Cane Award for a doctor who has "demonstrated the highest standards of scientific excellence and integrity," Dr. Nigra mentored hundreds of residents and fellows in the residency program he designed and initiated in the 1980's. He also diagnosed the first case of Kaposi sarcoma, often a manifestation of AIDS, in the Washington metropolitan area. Apart from the hospital, he maintained a private practice at his historic house in Georgetown, using the same detached professional office Dr. Joshua Riley, a highly reputed physician of that era, built and used as a clinic and school for medical students in the nineteenth century. Although the Washington Post once described Dr. Nigra's practice there as one of "dowagers and diplomats," it included many patients who were unable to pay and for whom he provided his services gratis. For, "above all, he believed in the Hippocratic Oath," observed his son Peter, a dermatologist. Tom Nigra also believed in fun, hospitality, and sportsmanship. With his irrepressible smile, impish wit, and inexhaustible gusto, he was as at home on horseback in the hunting field or shooting pheasant in England or dove on Maryland's Eastern Shore as he was in a laboratory or in front of a stove, concocting original and delicious recipes "to draw out the complex flavors of their ingredients." Once, a moment after having been handed his drink at a party, he was approached by a lady with a rash. "I never diagnose while drinking," he told her. "Come to my office tomorrow." A resident of Highland Beach, Florida, Dr. Nigra was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania and was a graduate of both St. Vincent's School and St. Vincent's College there. He received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, following which he completed: his internship in Internal Medicine (under Senior Resident Dr. Anthony Fauci) at New York-Bellevue Hospital in New York City; his residency in dermatology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston; and Berry Plan service at the National Institutes of Health. A keen collector of many fine arts, but, most of all, of friends, he was an enthusiastic and generous host. He was a member of the Clinical Pathological Society, the Washington Investors, the Alibi, Ausable, Chesapeake Bay Yacht, Chevy Chase, and Metropolitan Clubs. Dr. Nigra is survived by his wife of more than fifty-one years, the former Jane Brawley, a sister, Susan Nigra Snyder (who still recalls that, when she was a newborn, her brother, then age 7, attempted to flush her feet-first down the toilet), his son Peter T. (Meaghan K. Nelan) and daughter, Jane H. Gallina (Parham Ranjbar), and five grandchildren. A Service of Thanksgiving for the Life of Thomas P. Nigra will be held at Christ Church Georgetown, 31st & O Streets, NW, Washington, DC on Wednesday, March 30 at 11 a.m. As he would have wished, all physicians attending are asked, if possible, to wear their lab coats. In lieu of flowers, the family request that friends make gifts to charities of their choice. In lieu of flowers, the family request that friends make gifts to charities of their choice.